Pink Paislee Nantucket - Captiva

I have a quick post today featuring Pink Paislee's Nantucket line again. I did an "inspired by" layout of our time in Captiva. To read more about the details of how I came up with the layout idea, see my blog post at Pink Paislee.

 

Sometimes it's the simplest moments from a vacation that I remember the most. On this particular day, we took a ride from Sanibel to Captiva Island. There was a funny story about a conversation we had that I wanted to remember. The pictures support the story and the products I used on the layout convey the "feel" of Captiva.

In case you're interested in the story behind the page, the journaling reads:

Do  you remember when we ventured out to Captiva for dinner one night? I wanted to see the sunset and have dinner at the Mucky Duck. And you wanted to stop and see the manatees at the pier. The manatees were amazing, the sunset beautiful and the wait at the Mucky Duck 1-1/2 hours long. Do you remember how all of the mega-mansions on the way had fancy names and when I asked you what you would name ours, you said "Ain't Po' No Mo'." And that right there is why I love you. Because I get you and no one can make me laugh like like you do.

Up next, a school page and Design School Classes over at twopeasinabucket.com!

Cricut: CM Traveler Cartridge - Pack Your Bags!

I've been making plans for our yearly Halloween Disney trip this week when I stumbled on this Cricut layout I made a few months ago. This was from Nico's first trip on a plane + his first Mickey mouse shirt. It's so hard to remember my big boy being that tiny and bald.

The story is about how well he did travelling. We put him through a 2-hr flight and 3-hr drive to attend a wedding.  Then back on a plane a few days later to a family reunion in Disney World. My only excuse is that we were new parents and I'm not sure what the heck we were thinking. 

I used the Creative Memories Traveler cartridge to create the long title. I added penstitching with a white Uniball Signo pen to the word "pack", a few chipboard pieces, brads and a flag to add dimension to an otherwise flat title.

I love the bold, graphic shapes in this Cricut cartridge, it's definitely one of my current favorites. The paper, chipboard and stickers are all from a very old Little Yellow Bicycle line. I think it was called Traveler and it was released two years ago. I love using up my "old" stash.

Thanks so much for stopping by. I'll be back soon with a 2Peas layout and a sneak peek!

Pink Paislee's Nantucket

My poor neglected blog. It's a victim of the summer and very hot weather we've been having in the Northeast. We escape every day to the beach, the waterpark or anywhere we can cool off. Nico has just started summer camp this week for the first time so I've finally had some down time.

I sat down this week and made a page with Pink Paislee's new Nantucket line. It's one of the very few tropical lines that came out in 2011 and I was so happy to dig right in. I started with a page about our trip to Mexico two years ago. It's just a general overview page of the things that we loved, the beach and some of our favorite things.

The entire page was built around the honeycomb shape chipboard embellishment. One of my favorite Pink Paislee products ever. To keep the shapes perfectly aligned, I popped all of the pieces out and used the negative as a stencil. I lightly traced the hexagon shapes right on to the patterned paper and then simply stuck on all of my shapes.

To see a picture depicting exactly how I did it, you can visit the Pink Paislee blog and see my post dated 8/11/11. I deleted the photo before I got a chance to post it here. Sorry!

I also cut a few of those honeycomb shapes out and placed tiny, 1-inch photos behind the paper. I like the window effect and "peeking" through photos.

The title was created with Pink Paislee's Wood Shop letters and painted a bright aqua blue.  I added a few layers of die cuts and wood starfish from the Nantucket line to complete the page.

Thanks so much for taking a look. I'll be blogging on a much more regular basis now that summertime is winding down. I am so looking forward to spending more time creating. I miss it!

October Afternoon Rocket Age & Disney

This is a story that I've been holding on to for two years now. Waiting on that perfect line to tell my story of Nico on the Astro Orbiter in Disneyworld. And lo and behold, October Afternoon comes out with one of the best boy lines ever - Rocket Age! I love every single sheet of paper and embellishment in this line. I have a huge pile in my stash and I recently dug in.

This layout is copyright twopeasinabucket.com

I took these pictures while on the ride with him, so all I had were these close-up detailed shots. They told my story though - of how it felt to soar on a rocket looking over all of Tommorowland with my boy. The different space patterns and rocket embellishments give the layout the feel I was looking for.

I made the frame for the button with an old Making Memories metal tag and a chipboard circle. I then attached it to the rocket with a thin strip of wire. It visually connects the title to the photos. This was a fun and easy layout to put together. For a complete list of the products I used, click here.

It's way too hot out now, so that means more indoor/scrapping time! Be back soon with another new project.

Pink Paislee Sneaks

I'm still here. Enjoying the summer season and hosting the longest sleepover ever. My niece and nephew have been with us for 2 weeks and we've been everywhere! I'm exhausted, beyond tired, but happy. In my "spare" time I stayed up way past midnight to work on some CHA projects for Pink Paislee last week.

This is their new Halloween line Phantom, which was perfect for pictures of Nico at the Haunted Mansion two years ago.

I love the big polka dot paper with its faint grid background. I used the plain Mistables fabric border and stamped coordinating images with Staz-On ink. I really like the custom look that it adds to the page.

Here is a closeup of some of the die cuts and clear frames from the line. I added some pop dots here and there for dimension and some stitching for a pop of black.

Here is a close up of my page using the Vintage Melrose line by Pink Paislee. The aqua flower is a pre-made embellishment and I added the wooden button (also from the line) and black ribbons.

One of my favorite products from Pink Paislee are these new wood letters. I added some pink paint and then sponged them with light grey ink to match the page. I love that the colors are vintage with just enough of a modern twist.

I'm currently working on a page using Pink Paislee new Nantucket line - which is my favorite! I'll be back soon (after I take a nap)...

Pink Paislee's Mistables Sneak Peek

When I first got this new 'Mistables' line from Pink Paislee I really had no clue what to do with it. I am so not a mister. I probably own a total of 6 mists and very rarely use them. And then I started playing and fell in LOVE!

Believe it or not, every single product on this page started out a plain white canvas.

I used Aquamarine, Silver Mist and Dark Denim mists by Tattered Angels to add the color. My favorite is the patterned paper. It has a natural resist pattern already built in to it. You just mist it and watch it completely change. So cool! The muslin flower and scallop border trims soak up the mist really well for deep, even coverage.

 Here is a peek at the new line in it's plain vanilla state. It's coming to a retailer near you soon, so watch out for it! You can also get a better look at it on the Pink Paislee blog.

Crate Paper Family Portrait

Our assignment this month over on 2Peas was to create  a layout with a wedding theme. Now I have have plenty of wedding pictures to scrap (probably hundreds), but I've been intimidated by the project. It seems so daunting and I have no journaling from the time, so some of the stories have been lost.

I was looking over my proofs trying to get inspired and I kept laughing at some of the photos. I remember this being the 'wedding of my dreams' but now it seems that everything was "too much". Too much dress, huge flowers, poufs, huge wedding party...this is so not the wedding I would have now. So that's the story that I went with.

This layout is copyright Two Peas in a Bucket.com

I think the title says it all -  Retrospection: Age byproduct. I used 3 wedding proofs to tell the story and one of my favorite lines - Family Portrait by Crate Paper. Love the bold, non-traditional wedding colors.

The chipboard wedding cake is from Crate. I added the stick pin and an alphabet letter sticker "D" to personalize the cake. I cut three long strips for my ribbons and attached them with fabric brads. I used Thickers for the title and sponged them lightly with brown ink to tone down the bright teal color.

Next, I added strips of patterned paper and stickers to create a border along the bottom of my page. For a complete list of the products I used, you can click here.

Thanks so much for stopping by! I'll be back soon with some everyday life pics and a little Rocket Age.

Cricut Hello Thursday...or Friday

I've been missing around here! Just busy with end of school year stuff and enjoying this beautiful weather. I've been doing most of my scrapbooking at night and let me tell you -- I am TIRED! It seems as if once I start a project, I can't pull myself away until I'm finished. I've got alot of fun pages coming up to share with you in the next two weeks, so stay tuned!

Today, I have a Cricut blog page to share with you. This page is about my son at the beach when he was little and how silly he was. I remember how much he loved the sand and especially eating it. Yuck!

The red title, wave, surfboard and suns were all created using the new Cricut cartridge CM Traveler. You can see more of the images from this cart at Cricut's official blog here. All of the paper is from My Mind's Eye. I love the bold images and titles in this cartridge.

And this is a Father's Day card that I made for Pink Paislee with the Daily Junque line. The small envelope is actually the ephemera packaging, but I used it as the base of my card. I also used the Cuttlebug Seeing Spots folder to create the background.

Thanks for bearing with me through this little hiatus. Hopefully, I'll get on a better blogging/crafting schedule even if my sleep suffers for it.

Have a great Father's Day weekend!

Daily Junque & Straw

I just posted a recent assignment over on the Pink Paislee blog using the Daily Junque line. I love the colors in this line and they remind me so much of the quaint houses in St. Thomas, that I knew just the layout I wanted to do.

I layered lots of different patterned papers from the line until I had a nice summer palette. I then bought a cheap straw placemat at my local dollar store and cut it up to use on the layout.

 I used the Daily Junque twine to sew part of the title right on to the layout. The twine is just thin and silky enough to go right through the straw mat.

Lastly, I added some flags from the Daily Junque ephemera pack, buttons and paper flowers to draw the eye through the layout.

This page came together quickly once I added the straw mat. It really added the island feel and "pop" that I was looking for.

Thanks for stopping by!

Echo Park Splash & Slide

I am just starting to tackle the mountain of photos and stories from our cruise. From the moment I saw this Splash line from Echo Park, I knew it would be perfect for these slide photos.

This layout is copyright Two Peas in a Bucket. com

The minute Nico saw that slide, he started begging to go on it. He had a blast going up & down & up & down, he met lots of new friends and got into trouble on that slide (you mean 3 boys can't go down the slide at the same time repeatedly? Ha!). Here I thought that the Nickelodeon shows would be his favorite thing about the ship, but no - it was the slide.

My favorite paper is the yellow sunburst and I thought it matched the color & feel of the slide. I cut out a portion and used it to ground the title. I had so many pictures of Nico going in every direction on the slide, that it was tough to fit them all in. I kept 2 large photos (4x6 and 4x5) and then used a series of small pictures to tell my story. I used the chipboard circles to create movement over the 2-page spread and draw attention to the focus of the picture. Add some chipboard and fun patterned paper and you have one fun waterslide page.

For a complete list of the products that I used, visit my gallery here.
Have a great weekend!

Cricut Candyjar

Hi everyone! Happy Memorial Day weekend. I hope your weather is as nice as ours right now & you are out enjoying it!

I have a really quick project that I made for the Pink Paislee blog today. This is a candy centerpiece that I made for Nico's birthday party this summer. I love how it's decorative, personalized and good to eat.

 

I love these chalkboard stickers and they were really easy to cut with the Cricut Expression.

For more details and sizes, please visit the Pink Paislee blog here.

Have a great one!

Cruising Back from Vacation

I wasn't sure about this vacation. We knew we wanted to go on a cruise and while I tried to book the Disney Wonder it was completely sold out until the Fall. So we researched and came up with this 10-day cruise from NYC to the Caribbean. Good in theory, but 10 days of togetherness in a 205-square foot cabin - I wasn't so sure.

So we headed out of New York City and boarded the ship under very heavy security. The Intrepid was docked directly next to us and Nico was fascinated by all of the small airplanes and submarines on display.

Crossing the harbor, we passed the beautiful Lady Liberty. Such an amazing sight. We told Nico the story of how his Nonna (grandma) came through Ellis Island when she was about his age. He couldn't believe his Nonna was ever 5.

The very first day at sea it was warm and Nico headed straight to the pool.

And proceeded to go up and down and up and down that slide 5 million times.

This was a Nickelodeon Cruise so we got to meet Sponge Bob, Patrick Star, Dora, Diego and his favorite - Fan Boy and Chum Chum.

He got called to be on stage during the Nickelodeon Slime Time Live show. He hammed it up and wasn't a bit intimidated by the hundreds of people looking at him. Actually, I think he was loving the attention.

Participating in the kid's Pirate Parade onboard.

And running, running down those long hallways looking for our cabin. Do you know how many times Mama said "Nico stop running, Nico be quiet there might be babies sleeping, Nico mind the people around you, Nico say thank you, please, let the ladies off the elevator first." Reminding him of his manners is like a full-time job. But we refuse to give up. He will be polite (even if I die repeating myself). Ha!

Learning to play shuffleboard for the first time.

After 2-1/2 days at sea, our first port - Puerto Rico! I have never been so glad to see firm ground in my life.

Climbing, climbing, climbing Fort San Cristobal in Old San Juan. Nico loved touring the dungeon, sleeping quarters and cannons in this old Spanish fort. The views from the top were beautiful.

The cobblestone streets of Old San Juan. One of my favorite places in the world. I can "feel" the history here. It's a place my grandparent's brought me to when I was right around Nico's age, so this was a special spot for me.

He doesn't eat grilled cheese, snubs pizza and hates hamburgers. But a spicy Puertoriccan empanada from a street vendor - that's a yes? And then he went on to eat a second one.

Look at that grin - all because he got his father to pick him up and carry him up those stairs. We had the most delicious dinner in that restaurant - one of my favorite memories and meals.

He learned to snorkel and give that lovely fake cheese smile in St. Thomas. Ha!

Pretending to go overboard in St. Maarten.

This was one our favorite experiences of the entire trip - swimming with the dolphins! They are beautiful animals and to actually swim in their habitat and learn to give commands was amazing. He is still talking about that dolphin and keeps telling everyone that he went inside the dolphin tank - but it's okay because he's a trainer now.

And yes, I went on the trip too. I was really bad about handing the camera over this time. I'm grateful that the ship's photographer took a bunch of family photos or I'd have none.

Nico learned so much, laughed a bunch, met friends from around the world, had a lesson in navigation, swam with dolphins, had his passport stamped, met a real ship's captain, participated in a live stage show, discovered snorkeling and when asked what the best part of the cruise was ----he said to me "my Dad didn't go to work for 10 whole days and spent all of his time with me."

And that concludes this EPIC post. Thanks for staying with me! I have a few new projects and pages coming very soon.